ing, and a
means of cheating.

[Walks up and down while Strepsiades wraps himself up in
the blankets.]

Strep. Ah me! Would, pray, some one would throw over me
a swindling contrivance from the sheep-skins.

Soc. Come now; I will first see this fellow, what he is
about. Ho you! Are you asleep?

Strep. No, by Apollo, I am not!

Soc. Have you got anything?

Strep. No; by Jupiter, certainly not!

Soc. Nothing at all?

Strep. Nothing, except what I have in my right hand.

Soc. Will you not quickly cover yourself up and think of
something?

Strep. About what? For do you tell me this, O Socrates!

Soc. Do you, yourself, first find out and state what you
wish.

Strep. You have heard a thousand times what I wish.
About the interest; so that I may pay no one.

Soc. Come then, wrap yourself up, and having given your
mind play with subtilty, revolve your affairs by little
and little, rightly distinguishing and examining.

Strep. Ah me, unhappy man!

Soc. Keep quiet; and if you be puzzled in any one of
your conceptions, leave it and go; and then set your
mind in motion again, and lock it up.

Strep. (in great glee). O dearest little Socrates!

Soc. What, old man?

Strep. I have got a device for cheating them of the
interest.

Soc. Exhibit it.

Strep. Now tell me this, pray; if I were to purchase a
Thessalian witch, and draw down the moon by night, and
then shut it up, as if it were a mirror, in a round
crest-case, and then carefully keep it--

Soc. What good, pray, would this do you?

Strep. What? If the moon were to rise no longer
anywhere, I should not pay the interest.

Soc. Why so, pray?

Strep. Because the money is lent out by the month.

Soc. Capital! But I will again propose to you another
clever question. If a suit of five talents should be
entered against you, tell me how you would obliterate
it.

Strep. How? How? I do not know but I must seek.

Soc. Do not then always revolve your thoughts about
yourself; but slack away your mind into the air, like a
cock-chafer tied with a thread by the foot.

Strep. I have found a very clever method of getting rid
of my suit, so that you yourself would acknowledge it.

Soc. Of what description